The Boss Lady Sails the Sunshine; Full Review with Pics

[tdmullins]

are you using a go- pro? will also be on sunshine in may 2016 for 10 day journey cruise. yahoo!!!

 

Yes, I am using a GoPRo. I find it easier to film everything then grab pics of what I want to share.

[tdmullins]

Great review so far. Thanks for doing it.

 

I'm curious.. are you using a GoPro and if so, are the pictures you're posting taken from that GoPro?

 

If so, mind if I ask what setting you are using on the camera?

 

Thanks.

 

I am posting from my GoPro. I find it handy to film everything then grab pics from that.

 

I am on the road for work, I will check my settings when I get home so I don't tell ya something wrong.

[tdmullins]

I will be back tomorrow with more review and more pictures. But tonight I will share the video of my cabin. It was a spa balcony cabin on deck 10.

 

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[kmarie10531]

Which go pro do you have by chance ? I'm thinking ...no I AM getting one during the holiday sale season haha . Just can't decide which one to get

[WISH84]

I am posting from my GoPro. I find it handy to film everything then grab pics from that.

 

 

 

I am on the road for work, I will check my settings when I get home so I don't tell ya something wrong.

 

 

That's awesome. Thank you. Can't wait to see how my GoPro Hero4 works out for me. Have not really had anything to film with it except around the house.

[tdmullins]

Hey All, my GoPro is a Hero 3+, I have had it for a couple of years and absolutely love it!

 

I think the setting I keep it on is 1080p superview.

[tdmullins]

I left off right before my official first nap of the cruise...lol

 

I was actually napping when the announcements for muster started. We headed downstairs as soon as they started calling for passengers to report to their muster stations. But it's a long walk from deck 10 to deck 4, so we ended up in the front row.

 

 

I ended up being VERY thankful to be in the front row, because this was the longest muster I have ever attended. So long in fact we pulled away from the port and started sailing while we were still in muster.

 

As soon as they finally dismissed us I made tried to make my way to the front of the ship. I thought I had read online before I left that if you walked all the way to the front on deck 4 there would be stairs to take you up to deck 5 to the front of the ship. This may be true, but it's all marked crew only and we were ran out. At this point we just really wanted to be at the front of the ship for sailaway. So we went all the way to the top deck of Serenity all the way forward.

 

 

But this was VERY unfulfilling because you just felt like you were in a fishbowl. No breeze with everyone just standing there looking through the glass. I was very upset with myself for not researching this more because one of our favorite places to hang out is at the front of the ship and let the wind hit us. We never did find a deck all the way forward we liked and were very bummed. After I got home I researched some more and found out there is a forward area on deck 6. My husband said he REALLY wished he had known that before we cruised because he missed it more than I did.

 

I did catch us sailing by the Freedom of the Seas, which is one of my favorite ships. So that was cool.

 

 

At this point we decided to just grab a drink and enjoy the rest of sail away from our balcony.

 

And before we knew it, we were out to sea.

 

 

After hanging out on our balcony for awhile we headed back inside and had our second nap of the cruise. We woke up and it was getting dark so we headed back out to our balcony to check out the night sea.

 

 

We were still in a little bit of cruise ship traffic.

 

[tdmullins]

We eventually went back in, where Tony decided he needed to nap some more. I made my way down to the Marketplace to see what the offerings were for dinner because I knew at this point that we were not making it to the dining room.

 

I grabbed a few things for the both of us to snack on. The shrimp on the buffet that night was very, very good. I had also grabbed a cup of coffee while at the market place. I had brought my own creamer from home because we like the sweet cream. I was very pleasantly surprised how good the coffee was.

 

 

Tony woke up eventually, ate on some of the food I had brought up and agreed that the shrimp was really good. And he don't normally like breaded shrimp. We then decided to order a couple things from room service instead of heading back out.

 

I decided on the shrimp salad on a roll because I had really liked it on my last Carnival cruise.

 

 

Tony went with a Reuben and a Ceasar salad.

 

 

 

 

We both topped it off with a piece of chocolate cake. I LOVE LOVE this chocolate cake. I was really looking forward to having this on this cruise. Once of the things I had missed sailing with Royal Caribbean was the desserts. They do not have anything on the room service menu that i really care about.

 

 

It was as good as I had remembered.

 

I must now apologize for the lack of any nightlife pics this first night. Because honestly we both went into "we are at sea" sleep. Our first night on any cruise we end up crashing because we are so relaxed and all worries are left behind. It's amazing actually.

If interested this is the link to my video blog from day 1

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

 

Next up: Our Only Sea Day.

[trishnmike]

Thanks for sharing the video. I've been trying to convince my daughter into going on a cruise. Even offered to pay her way. This helps shows her how easy it is. I keep telling her that it's a lot bigger than she thinks.

[tdmullins]

Thanks for sharing the video. I've been trying to convince my daughter into going on a cruise. Even offered to pay her way. This helps shows her how easy it is. I keep telling her that it's a lot bigger than she thinks.

 

It really is hard to picture how big the ships are until you actually step foot on one. I am amazed everytime.

[tdmullins]

Day 2: Our only Sea Day

 

 

I woke up the next morning wondering if somehow I had gotten our itinerary confused. It felt like we were docked. I could feel no movement whatsoever. So I got up to check, and nope we were sailing right along. It was just a combination of very calm seas and a slow moving ship.

 

 

 

I decided to run down to the Marketplace and see what the selections were that morning and just leave Tony sleeping. It's kinda a routine we have gotten into when cruising. I let him sleep and he lets me book cruises..lol. But seriously, I do love getting food and just bringing it back to the cabin to eat. They had a lot of stuff available. I chose to try the french toast, a couple biscuits, some potatoes, bacon and ham.

 

 

It was all decent, except the little biscuits. They were very dry. They did have gravy available that might have made them better, but I had opted out of the gravy that morning.

 

After breakfast we decided we wanted to try the coffee at Java Blue instead of ordering any from room service.

 

 

Make sure to get the coffee card if you plan on buying coffee during the whole cruise. After your sixth coffee purchase the next one is free.

 

Java Blue is located in the same area as the Ocean Plaza and the Alchemy Bar. There is plenty of seating in this area. So we grabbed two seats next to a window and had our coffee with a view.

 

 

The Ocean Plaza is where most of the trivia appears to be held also. They are just started the first game of the cruise when we sat down. So we had fun kinda just playing along from our seats over by the window. That is until I spilled my coffee and had to go get something to clean my mess up with.

 

After awhile I decided it was time for me to be spending time on my balcony enjoying this beautiful day at sea.

 

 

I napped out there for a bit until Tony joined me. I am pretty sure he was napping inside during my balcony nap. But we just spent some time enjoying the wind and the sun. Our balcony was pretty well open and we were able to have access to both. Which was good, because usually at this point was when we would be hanging out on the forward decks of the ship.

 

Here you can see how open our balcony was.

 

[tdmullins]

After awhile, we decided we were ready for some lunch. During the time preparing for the cruise I had kept telling Tony about the Havana Bar and the Cuban food they had there during lunch. My thoughts were that this was a good day to try it out. I thought if we didn't like any of it we could just go back to the Marketplace and get something. And I am sooooo glad we didn't wait until the last day to try it! Tony went back several days for those empanadas.

 

The Havana Bar is located Aft of the ship, behind the marketplace. This is also a good area to sit and eat if the Marketplace is full and you can't find a table. This is also were Ji Ji's Asian cuisine and Cucina Del Capito is located. During lunch Ji Ji's offers a Mongolian wok selection and Cucina offers pasta. I am sorry to say that I never had either.

 

Now mind you, the offerings are only 3 things and a dessert. But that's all that is needed. Today's selections were Cubanos, beef pies and pork empanadas. The dessert was coffee cupcakes. It was all delicious! I highly recommend using the garlic aioli sauce they have available along with the cubano.

 

 

Here we are enjoying our wonderful Cuban finds in the cute Havana Bar. This ended up being one of our favorite places on the ship.

 

 

On a side note: I had noticed that they had macroni and cheese egg rolls on the buffet in the Marketplace when we had walked through there on our way to the Havana Bar. So I grabbed a couple of those to try.. and they were really good too.

 

From the Havana Bar we strolled around the pool deck on our way back to our balcony for some more chill time. I picked up a drink in a large fish along the way.

 

 

I ended up napping again until it was time to meet up with my facebook group. We had agreed to meet in the Red Frog Pub on our sea day. It was fun finally getting to talk to everyone in person.

 

 

We sat and chit chatted for awhile and discussed important things like our next cruise and previous cruises. The Red Frog Pub was a good location for this. You might want to keep that in mind if you plan a little get together of any kind.

 

When I got back to our cabin a service man had arrived to look at our AC. We could hear that it was making a noise but no cold air was coming out so I had told our room steward earlier that day. He measured the temp in our room and it was 78. Yep, that's too hot. We left him working because he started pulling panels out of the ceiling and we just felt in the way.

 

We hung out some more around the pool decks.

 

 

 

We walked by Guy's burgers and there was not a line. So I was like, "eh why not."

 

 

When we got back the room the AC was working and it felt AMAZING!

[ladygal4.4]

I wish your pictures would work. I just see a cute kitten with a "photo not found"

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jeafl]

Great review so far! We are on the Sunshine in March and can't wait! Love your pictures--it feels like I am right there with you!

[RC of NC]

I wish your pictures would work. I just see a cute kitten with a "photo not found"

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That's a problem with the Tapatalk app. I had the same problem, so I switched to the dedicated Cruise Critic forum app. The pictures show up fine now.

[WISH84]

Enjoying your review. The Sunshine was our Honeymoon ship back in the day when it was still the Destiny.

[tdmullins]

I wish your pictures would work. I just see a cute kitten with a "photo not found"

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Really? I can still see them, so I am not sure what is going on. Photobucket could be acting up today.

[tdmullins]

That's a problem with the Tapatalk app. I had the same problem, so I switched to the dedicated Cruise Critic forum app. The pictures show up fine now.

 

OK good. I was a little concerned. Thanks for letting us know.

[tdmullins]

After my third Guy's Burger of the cruise, we decided to check on the status of the AC in our cabin. As soon as I opened the door I could tell the BIGGEST difference. I was like "oh yeah, this is what it's supposed to feel like." I was so happy that I wouldn't have to step out into the hallway to cool down..lol

 

I decided I wanted to catch the sunset that night, so we went out to some of the top decks and watched it set.

 

 

 

Tonight was Cruise Elegant night. I had discovered when unpacking that I had forgotten Tony's dress pants at home, so we knew that the dining room was out of the question for us that night. So we headed down to the Marketplace to see what the options were for us tonight.

 

I had to try out the automatic hand washing machine.

 

 

The selections included Prime Rib, barbecue ribs and Carbonara. Both were very good. Here we are enjoying our Prime Rib in the Marketplace.

 

 

 

 

Tonight's dessert selection included chocolate peanut butter pie, banana cake, apple puff pastry and black forest bread pudding. I really liked the banana cake but I LOVED the bread pudding.

 

 

After dinner we walked down to the Ocean Plaza to see what was happening down there. I checked out the Taste Bar. The restaurant they were highlighting was the Italian restaurant, Cucina El Capitano. It looked really good but I was so full from dinner that I didn't try it.

 

The Taste Bar

 

 

The majority of the people were still dressed very nice from dinner and we felt a little bit out of place. We decided to just go out and enjoy the beautiful night and hang out on the pool deck.

[tdmullins]

We walked through the Marketplace. It was pretty empty at this point.

 

 

I ended up sitting and watching Pitch Perfect 2 for awhile. I love these big screens outside. Carnival offers popcorn and blankets to make the experience even better. The popcorn is made and handed out at the Blue Iguana Bar. The blankets can be checked out at the towel station.

 

 

Before dinner the AC had quit working again. I had told my room steward about it but no one had showed up to fix it yet when I came back in from the movie. I called Guest Services directly. The technician showed up in about 15 minutes. It was the same guy who had came earlier, so we explained that it quit after about 45 minutes. He told us it was because we weren't locking our balcony door. I told him that I always kept it closed but not locked all the time. He said that the doors had a sensor to shut off the AC if it was left open. But he still ended up taking the panel of the unit and resetting something. He told us he was just going to bypass the whole door issue but I was still scared to stay out there longer than 30 minutes at a time.

 

I am not sure if he was really telling the truth but you might want to pay attention to your door and actually lock it and not just keep it closed.

 

 

 

 

We ended up having another early night because we were just so darned relaxed.

 

 

Up Next: KEY WEST!!!

 

 

If you would like to watch my vlogs from our Sea Day, here are the links:

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

[siestakeys04]

I am loving your review!!! My husband and I do the exact same thing a just chill out and relax. It's nice not to hustle and bustle.

[momof3cruisers]

Really enjoying your review. I love your laid back approach.

[ladygal4.4]

Agreed! Loving the review

 

 

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[wantocruisemore]

Really enjoying the review and photos. I want to do the Sunshine some day.

Did your room have a frig?

And maybe I missed it, but what was location of cabin?

[tdmullins]

Really enjoying the review and photos. I want to do the Sunshine some day.

Did your room have a frig?

And maybe I missed it, but what was location of cabin?

 

Yes, our room did have a fridge. We were in spa balcony cabin on deck 10, port side. We were actually the very first cabin when you entered the door on the pool deck 10. It was very handy.